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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Fiddler on the Roof Also see Richard's reviews of Man of La Mancha, Eleventh Hour Radio, The End of the World Cabaret, and La Cage aux Folles
It would be wrong to say the great comic actor Ryan Cooper is the whole show at the Greenfinch Theatre and Dive as Tevye in Fly North Theatrical's Fiddler on the Roof. But not completely wrong. It's a bit like the 2006 Broadway Company at first, with the actors and musicians playing instruments when they enter, under the flawless direction of Caleb D. Long. Tevye pounds a small old marching drum in the rousing "Tradition," the big number at the top of the show. And hours later, it bangs a cruel measure. The art of stagecraft is blithely fulfilled as a blank stage quickly acquires its entire set, and literature lifts up along with the Russian village of Anatevka from the short stories of Sholem Aleichem, musicalized in a landmark saga by Jerry Bock (music), Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), and Joseph Stein (book) that opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre in 1964. It won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book. In St. Louis, the Greenfinch is a small theater and this is a small cast, but somehow Fiddler has never felt bigger. The performance runs three hours, but you feel like Superman just watching it, as though you're flying through all of human identity, and clannishness and upheaval and love and comic trickery, even in this physically stripped-down production, where nearly half the wonderful actors are kids. Tevye (Mr. Cooper) and Golde (the too-young-to-be-legendary Rachel Bailey) have five daughters, putting them in the same literary basket as Pride and Prejudice or Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia, and that's one more than you get in Little Women. This production is thoughtfully anchored by Ken Haller as Lazar Wolf, who's clearly my age but requests the hand of Tevye's eldest daughter Tzeitel (the hypnotic Jade Cash). The production is further strengthened by the delightful Sarah Lantsberger as both Yente the matchmaker and Lazar's dead wife Fruma-Sarah. Milo Garlich is first rate as Tzeitel's hapless, impoverished love-interest Motel, and the second and third eldest daughters are beautifully played by Danielle Singleton and Zoe Klevorn (as Hodel and Chava). Here, ultimately, the story seems structured around the three girls. A genuine and sometimes weary hopefulness informs all their work. The music direction is by company co-founder Colin Healy, who plays piano, guitar, and accordion on stage, with co-founder Bradley Rohlf as the lead percussionist. The atmospheric choreography is by director Long. Mr. Healy and Mr. Rohlf also designed the imaginative set, along with the director. Assistant choreographer Maggie Nold, as always, provides professional-grade back-up on stage in many scenes as Shaindel and others. And Henry Schumacher is a bit of a Robert Alda type as a singer, but otherwise wonderful as Perchik, Hodel's sweetheart, with his radical proletariat views. Kieran Thompson is amazingly good as the third suitor, Fyedka, in a small Cossack's hat: funny in some places, and terrified in others. Ten year-old Callum Thompson is a low-key riot as Sasha, Mendel, and others. Keyboardist Scott MacDonald is also excellent as the Constable, bringing harsh law and anti-semitic disorder to them all. And little Lacey Irby and Annie Miller are adorable as the two youngest daughters, Bielke and Shprintze. But even with all that, this show is 90% Ryan Cooper's, as Tevye. He's a lot more interesting than Tiger Woods, but has some of the same micro ticks and balances when teeing up a joke for his one hundred different comedic hole-in-ones, and all his jokes feel fresh and spontaneous. Elsewhere, the pace on the marriage song "Sunrise Sunset" feels a bit fast, I thought, but a couple of songs that aren't on the original cast recording are also included here, so you do get more than you bargained for. It's usually done up as such a big self-important show, that maybe you'd call this latest version at the Greenfinch (formerly the "Way Out Club") a "chamber piece." Nevertheless, it really fills the storefront stage, with plenty of music and lots of great singing thanks to music director Healy. A trembling Kieran Thompson gets great laughs as Fyedka tries to gain permission to marry Chava before being chased off. But not long afterward, the whole stage seems to bleach out to black-and-white, and this Tevye beats his breast over the latest union. It almost feels like an out of body experience for us, as the last of his three older daughters leaves him. But we're the spirits who float above as he nearly dies in this final instance. Behind the scenes, the perfect costumes are by Jen Blum-Tatara, with nice lighting cues by Ryan Thorp and fine scenic painting by Katie Orr. The terrific fiddler is Fiona Brickey, along with a vastly overqualified clarinetist in Josh Baumgartener. It would be trite for anyone else, but Mr. Cooper stalks around the stage after the third betrothal as if ruthlessly tested and trapped by all his daughters' increasingly modern demands. But I've never noticed this rising action before, in Tevye's relationships with his daughters in prior productions, and it seems like such an obvious thing now. Then, as they're being forced out of their shtetl, each sentimental parting seems like an ultimate farewell. Czarist repression gains its nightmarish fulfillment, and everything is lost, save for the drumbeat of tradition. Ms. Klevorn's Chava is suddenly the victim of the twin opposing forces of love and faith, and descends into pure nihilism before one last, final plot twist. And the part of you that never grows up pulls back in horror, till director Long's wordless storytelling puts a glowing frame around the whole thing. Fiddler on the Roof, produced by Fly North Theatricals, continues through May 3, 2026 at the Greenfinch Theatre and Dive, 2525 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.flynorth.org. Cast (in order of appearance): * Denotes Student of Fly North Theatricals The Band: Piano/Guitar/Accordion: Colin Healy Production Staff: |
